Ministry of Home Affairs
Steps to Check Violence Against Women
A comparison of crime rate  of various crime heads on crimes against women in the last five years shows no uniform trend. Separate data regarding cases of rape against minor girl child belonging to marginalised groups of society is not maintained.
‘Police’ and ‘Public Order’ are State subjects under the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution of India. The responsibilities to maintain law and order, protection of life and property of the citizens including investigation and prosecution of crime against women rest with the respective State Governments. The State Governments are competent to deal with such offences under the extant provisions of laws. However, the Government of India has taken a number of initiatives for safety of women across the country, which are given below:
i. The Criminal Law , Act 2013 was enacted for effective deterrence against sexual offences. Further, the Criminal Law  Act, 2018 was enacted to prescribe even more stringent penal provisions including death penalty for rape of girls below the age of 12 years. The Act also inter-alia mandates completion of investigation and trials within 2 months.
ii. Emergency Response Support System provides a pan-India, single internationally recognized number  based system for all emergencies, with computer aided dispatch of field resources to the location of distress.
iii. The Ministry of Home Affairs  has launched a cyber-crime reporting portal on 20th September, 2018 for citizens to report obscene content.
iv. Using technology to aid smart policing and safety management, Safe City Projects have been sanctioned in first Phase in 8 cities . The projects have been prepared by State Governments, taking into account the need for identification of hot spots for crimes against women for development of critical assets in various areas including infrastructure, technology adoption and capacity building in community through awareness programmers.
v. MHA has launched the “National Database on Sexual Offenders”  on 20th September, 2018 to facilitate investigation and tracking of sexual offenders across the country.
vi. MHA has launched an online analytic tool “Investigation Tracking System for Sexual Offences” to monitor and track time-bound investigation in sexual assault cases in accordance with Criminal Law  Act, 2018.
vii. In order to improve investigation, MHA has taken steps to strengthen DNA analysis units in Central and State Forensic Science Laboratories. This includes setting up of State-of-the-Art DNA Analysis Unit in Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Chandigarh. MHA has also sanctioned setting-up and upgrading of DNA Analysis units in State Forensic Science Laboratories in 16 States/UTs.
viii. MHA has notified guidelines for collection of forensic evidence in sexual assault cases and the standard composition in a sexual assault evidence collection kits to facilitate adequate capacity in manpower, training and skill building programs for Investigation Officers, Prosecution Officers and Medical Officers.
ix. Ministry of Home Affairs has released financial assistance in March, 2020, to States/UTs for setting up/ strengthening of Women Help Desks in Police Stations.
x. In addition to the above-mentioned measures, MHA has been issuing advisories from time to time to States/UTs to deal with crimes against women, which are available at www.mha.gov.in.
The Nirbhaya Fund Framework provides for a non-lapsable corpus fund for safety and security of women. As per available information, a total of Rs. 4357.62 crore has been provided in the budget allocation for the Nirbhaya Fund till the financial year 2019-20. Of this, the budget allocation for the Nirbhaya Fund in the last five years is Rs 2357.62 crore.
This was stated by the Minister of State for Home Affairs, Shri G. Kishan Reddy in a written reply to question in the Rajya Sabha today.